"You have someone, even with a gun to a flight attendant's head, you're gonna say, 'I'm sorry -- goodbye. You're not gonna open that cockpit door," Deeds told ABC7 News.

The man didn't reach the cockpit. Witnesses said a flight attendant blocked him with the drink cart near first class. Then, passengers forced him back to his seat. He was ultimately secured there with duct tape.

"If you see someone trying to breach the cockpit of an airplane and you're physically able, everybody on that plane needs to attack them," said American Airlines passenger James Lewis.

Some question if this man should have ever been allowed on the plane. Just hours before his flight, LAX police arrested him for trespassing after he tried to go through a security door, and they said he'd been drinking.